08 April 2009

The ninth annual CGS Tour to Salt Lake City came to a successful close with the traditional Saturday night dinner at Lamb’s Grill. Members regaled each other with the stories of their successes and lauded leaders Jane Knowles Lindsey and Nancy Simons Peterson after an exhausting but satisfying week.

Here's a short list of some of the discoveries:

Jane Knowles Lindsey went back three more generations on her HUND family in Germany.

The 1850 U.S. Census Mortality Schedule of Peoria County, Illinois gave Sandy Jones Fryer insight into why her great-grandmother, Elizabeth Taylor, knew so little about her family of origin. The youngest of ten children, little Elizabeth was only three years old when her parents both died in 1849 of typhoid fever.

Judy Bodycote Thomas traced her Gilbert Cooke family of Leicestershire, England back two more generations.

Shirley Buxton Williams struck gold in German records, finding six generations of her SCHNECKENBURGER family in Baden.

Bill Bryant's first trip to Salt Lake City was an adventure as he, Jane and Nancy traced his paternal Uncle Gustav through England and France, finally finding his marriage in Constantinople.

Cathy Merrill Paris ventured into German records and located Joseph BALS and learned that the original records have so much more information than the IGI.

Alison Kern Shedd discovered eight pages of bible records for the Clark HALL family of Orleans County, New York.

Bill O’Neil has tracked his wife's grandfather Wilson from Jacksonville, Illinois to a homestead in Nebraska to Denver Colorado. He finally found him in the 1920 census living with a daughter in Los Angeles.

Susan Nourse Peterson found a physical description of her great-grandfather, Glenn Lamb, in the 1894-1896 Great Register of California Voters: 5'9" with auburn hair and blue eyes. Susan and daughter Sharon have become regulars on the annual trip.

Gloria Hanson completed her full Norwegian "to-do" list, crossing off the last item on the last day. She also did a bit of research for a friend and learned they may be related.

Laura Spurrier used land records to prove that Richard Spurrier with wife Elizabeth and Richard B. Spurrier with wife Eliza, contemporaries in 19th century Morgan County, Ohio, were two different men. The former couple moved to Iowa; the latter stayed in Ohio and were her great-great grandparents. She also learned more about his middle initial "B" and may have a new clue about an earlier generation.